1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications, and in particular to systems and methods for screening telephone calls.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional telephone systems often offer a Telephone Answering Service (TAS) that redirects incoming calls encountering a ring-no-answer condition, a busy condition, or a do-not-disturb condition, to a network voice messaging system on which the caller can record a message for the called party. The called party is then provided with a Message-Waiting-Indicator (MWI). In many conventional systems, the MWI notification is in the form of a stutter dial tone or a flashing light on the called party's telephone. Upon detection of this indicator, the called party can dial into the voice messaging platform to retrieve the recorded message from his/her mailbox.
Alternatively, many residential telephone customers equip their homes with a Telephone Answering Machine (IAM) that automatically answers their phone and takes a message when an incoming call is not answered within the first three or four ring cycles. The IAM plays the caller's message over its speakers so that the call can be screened and if desired, picked up by the called party to initiate a two-way conversation. If the call is not picked up, the IAM provides a MWI notification, usually by illuminating a lamp on the IAM device. Once again, the called party, upon detection of this indicator, can retrieve the recorded message from his/her mailbox.
The above described two classes of conventional automated telephone call answering solutions have distinct advantages and disadvantages. The TAS handles busy as well as unanswered calls but does not allow message screening. The IAM allows screening of unanswered calls but does not handle busy calls. In addition, neither solution provides a timely notification of calls missed when the phone line is tied up while the called party is surfing the Internet on a dialup connection.
A more recent call answering service called the Internet Answering Machine (IAM), provided by CallWave, Inc., works with the “Call Forward On Busy” feature of the called party's phone line to answer calls while the called party is using the phone line to access the Internet via the called party's computer. Once activated, callers no longer get annoying busy signals when the called party is online. Instead, callers hear a greeting after which they can leave a short message. The caller's phone number and message are transmitted in near real-time to the called party's computer so that the called party can screen the call and optionally choose to interact with the caller during the call. For example, the called party could choose to answer the call, continue screening on an alternate telephone, or request that a telemarketer blocking message be played to the caller.
Some recent TAS systems provide call screening while recording a message from a caller. However, many of these conventional call screening methods disadvantageously only allow a call to be screened using a particular phone line of the called party, which may not be the most desirable phone line for performing the call screening operation. In addition, these conventional methods generally are not capable of providing the called party with the caller's Caller-ID. Further, these conventional methods may not allow calls to be screened while the particular phone is being used by the called party to access the Internet or the like via their computer. Lastly, these services typically require tight coupling with the called party's local telephone switch, thereby limiting the breadth of the serving territory that can be covered by a single system.